title: Family medicine patients who use retail clinics have lower continuity of care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to compare continuity of care for family medicine patients using retail medicine clinics to continuity for patients not using retail clinics. Retail medicine clinics have become popular in some markets. However, their impact on continuity of care has not been studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  Electronic medical records of adult primary care patients seen in a large group practice in Minnesota in 2011 were analyzed for this study. Two randomly chosen groups of patients were selected (N = 400): those using 1 of 3 retail walk-in clinics staffed by nurse practitioners in addition to standard office care and a comparison group that only used standard office care. Continuity was measured as the percentage of visits that involved the primary care provider. We also compared patients who made zero visits to their primary care providers with those who made some visits to their primary care providers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Continuity of care was lower for patients who used retail clinics than for patients who did not use retail clinics (0.17 vs 0.44, mean difference 0.27). The percentage of patients who made zero visits to their primary care providers was 54.5 for users of retail clinics versus 31.0 for those who did not use retail clinics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Continuity of care should be monitored as retail medicine continues to expand.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Rohrer
authors.forename: Kurt B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Angstman
authors.forename: Gregory M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Garrison
authors.forename: Julie A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Maxson
authors.forename: Joseph W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Furst
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D010823:Physician Assistants / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: clinical practice evaluation; managerial epidemiology; nurse practitioners; primary care; retail medicine